Woman Rescued From Burning Home, Man Dies in Blaze (PHOTOS & VIDEO)
Detective Mario Mastrangelo, a 20-year veteran of the Montgomery County Police Department, is being hailed as a hero today (April 24) after he rushed into a burning house to save the life of an elderly woman from a fire at 13520 Jamieson Place in Germantown.
He was accompanied in the rescue by a retired Montgomery County police corporal, who happened to live next door to the burning house. The officers could not reach the woman’s husband who was upstairs during the fire.
The detective was on his way to work at around 7:30 a.m. when he saw the smoke, a lot of smoke, while driving in his unmarked police cruiser with his two children, aged 12-years-old and 9-years-old, in the backseat.
When he arrived at the house, firefighters were still in route.
So Mastrangelo and the retired police officer entered the home where they discovered an elderly woman in the back of the house.
“She was kind of disoriented, and didn’t know where she was; kind of sitting down. She didn’t want to leave the home. But I told her we had to get out of the house. There was so much smoke and you could feel the heat. So I grabbed her and took her out of the home,” said Mastrangelo.
Armed with a garden hose, Mastrangelo valiantly tried to make it upstairs to try and rescue the woman’s husband but he said the roof was starting to come down, the smoke was intense and the flames were getting high.
“We tried our best,” Mastrangelo said. “I saw the ceiling blistering. I couldn’t breathe. Like I said the flames were two to three feet high. It was like a wall of flames.”
“I felt like I was going to pass out,” said Mastrangelo as he described how the smoke takes over your lungs.
Mastrangelo met with reporters after this heroic rescue, still wearing the same suit that he had on when he entered the burning house.
He recalled the first thing his kids said to him when he rejoined them in his police car was that he, “Papa,” smelled like smoke. They also called him a hero.
But Mastrangelo says he explained to them that it was just part of a day’s work.
“Our job is to save people’s lives. That’s what we do,” he explained to his kids who were going to work with him today because it is “Take Your Child To Work Day.”
Firefighters said the blaze caused approximately $300,000 in damage. A dog was rescued from the house but two cats are missing. Firefighters have not yet released the cause of the fire or the name of the man who died. The elderly woman was transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The investigation continues.
Cont'd 13520 Jamieson Pl, 1 adult female & dog rescued by Police officer & attempts to rescue male on 2nd floor to no avail; 2 cats missing
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) April 24, 2014
Cont’d Jamieson Pl Fire – Cause Under Investigation, Accidental; Damage $200K bldg, $100k contents; family &’pets displaced, cats missing
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) April 24, 2014
Photo | @mcfrsPIO
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